Critical Mass Toronto Video

I just came across some video that was recently put up here.

Best moment of all. Riding through the Eaton Centre

Critical Mass – June 2007

Work is still busy but the pressure has plateaued and I’m now used to it so it doesn’t feel nearly as bad as it did 2-3 days ago. I’m still going in today despite its being a long weekend and even left on time last night at about 4:00 PM. My intent was to get home, pick up my helmet, go to the bike shop, pick up my bike (whose chain broke 18 km from home 2 days ago) then ride like crazy to get over to Critical Mass. For the uninitiated, Critical Mass is:

“Critical Mass is an event typically held on the last Friday of every month in cities around the world where bicyclists and, less frequently, skateboarders, inline skaters, roller skaters and other self-propelled commuters take to the streets en masse. Critical Mass events have no official leader. Participants meet at a set location and time and travel as a group through city streets…

“The purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting and carrying out the event, creating a public space where automobiles are displaced to make room for alternatives. One commonly used slogan is We Are Traffic. Critical Mass grew alongside and probably in conjunction with the environmental movement, which cites private automobile use as catastrophic to the global and local environment, in physical and social terms. Generally, the purposes of the event as indicated by the actions of the riders are meant to oppose the domination of the automobile over urban culture, or to create something different. However, these things are often interpreted very differently and some riders may even disagree – for example, one might not ride at all for environmental purposes, but because of social justice theories. Many do not ride in opposition to anything: they simply enjoy an opportunity to cycle socially and in safety, or in a boisterous and celebratory crowd.” (from Wikipedia entry on Critical Mass. And for more information and background consult the New Rider Guide.

After weeks and weeks of insane work schedules, I really wanted to make it. The odds were against me, though. While I had 2.5 hours to get to the start of Critical Mass, I was 1.5 hours from home and 45 minutes from the bike shop and probably 15-20 minutes from there to Bloor & Spadina to the start of the ride. And then came the obstacles, the first of which was Sage had my bike’s claim ticket and was out on the Toronto island unable to bring it to me. No problem, I thought, I’ll get the number off of it. However, as I called her I noticed my phone had next to no battery and in fact died before she could give it to me. New plan was to call Sage from a payphone at the subway station and have her leave a message for me at home with the number.

I got to the subway station but Sage wasn’t answering her phone and though she doesn’t usually listen to her voicemail, I left one anyway before moving on. When I got to my subway stop I ran like crazy to get to the bus which left shortly thereafter. I sat down next to a man and turned up the music in the headphones and relaxed a bit. A few minutes in to the ride the guy next to me started to get up and when I got up to let him out, he didn’t get up. I asked him if he needed to get up and he responded, “That guy just puked on me!” which seemed like rather a crazy thing to say but he wasn’t interested in getting up and so I sat back down, laughed about the strangeness of it and then apologized to him for laughing at his misfortune. A few minutes later I found another seat as the smell was getting pretty ripe. A few minutes after that the driver took the bus out of service and left us on a street corner in an area of town that doesn’t get frequent bus service and I sat down to wait for what could be as much as 20 minutes. Pace, call Sage on the pay phone, pace some more, listen to some podcasts, repeat.

After about 15 min the bus arrives and takes me home where I run in, plug in my phone, change into shorts and then try to call Sage again. No dice. Finally the phone buzzes and there is a text message from Sage with my clam ticket number. I call a cab (it was too late by then for the bus to get me there on time) and dash out the door, making it to the corner with, surprisingly, 10 minutes to spare.

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The corner was filled to bursting with people and bikes, well over 100 as best I could tell. In 15 minutes we were off, filling the eastbound lanes of Bloor street (one of the busiest streets in Toronto) with hundreds of cheering, bell-ringing, even trumpet playing bike riders including one very tall bike

Rather than give you a play by play, I’ll just give you an idea of the atmosphere and you just need to imagine that going on for 2.5 hours (or longer – I headed home at about 9:30). The ride itself has no set route – the people in the front decide where the group goes and the people in the front change. The group is kept together through red lights by means of “corks” – people stopping their bikes in front of cars to prevent them from moving into the intersection while the group passes. Often, the (quite talented) trumpet playing rider would “serenade” the cars coaxing a smile and giving the impression of a parade (an acceptable reason for traffic to be unexpectedly stopped) Many honks and gestures of support were heard and seen, as were grumpy faces, honks of frustration and anger. Both were met with great cheering and shouts of “Happy Friday!” At some point a rider with a stereo system in his bike’s trailer came by and provided (quite loud) music for us. Crowds took photos and asked us what we were doing and conversations came and went between the riders.

As usual, I find myself almost teary at gatherings like this – I don’t know if it is being surrounded by people with a shared vision or just the joy of seeing something like this pulled off but it was incredibly inspiring. I had a grin on my face (as did everyone else) for most of the ride.

One thing I noticed, though, that I saw Paul experience once in a similar situation, was that I felt less shy and actually found myself cheering along and wishing “Happy Fridays” myself. At one point, when the group detoured through the Eaton Centre (a large shopping mall) to get to another street, I turned to a scowling shopper and told him to “cheer up! It’s Friday!” – a talking-to-strangers event for me on par with public speaking to a large crowd for most “normal” folks.

What I liked about it, as I hinted at above, was the vision of the future. I loved riding down a busy Toronto street in a sea of happy bikers, I loved seeing anarchy working (on a small scale), and it made all of my other lonely rides through suburbia totally worth it. At one point early on in our ride, a woman on the sidewalk shouted “What are you celebrating?” It wasn’t until I got a few blocks away (isn’t that always the case?) that I had my answer. “Peak Oil”

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For photos of the event have a look in the Toronto Cranks Photo Gallery

I might regret this but…

I’m changing things so that comments don’t require login to encourage dialog. I still may post something for registered users only so logging in can be useful. Hopefully I don’t get buried in comment spam. Hopefully in the next few days I can install defensio to see if that helps. (Thanks to Julien for the suggestion.)

Has anyone seen my inspiration? (oh there it is…)

(sorry for the rambling voice here – I am apparently incapable of linear thought at the moment)

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written anything of any substance in here and even longer since I got on a good run like I’ve been known to in the past and I’m not entirely sure where the inspiration has gone. I’m sure a great deal of it has to do with my work schedule – lately I’ve been working long hours and often working one or both weekend days and so my days consist of riding the TTC or my bike to work, working like crazy (incidentally not in an office as usual but in a trailer that spends most of its day at 35 or so degrees C (that would be 95 F)) with lots of pressure then heading home, eating something and going to bed. Not much time in there to reflect let alone to write those reflections down. And so you don’t hear from me and I don’t get the joy of writing something down here and getting a dialog going with some of you.

Today as I rode to work I thought back some on the yurt years and how my “yurt years self” would react to my current self. I distinctly remember saying things like: “I think that “Men as provider” thing is really an example of the low expectations that our society puts on men and I think that many men take that to mean that that’s all that they’re capable of. That a good man is someone who brings in good money and that there are no other aspirations or qualifications necessary. Thus while women wind up with eating disorders trying to fit some body image that is expected of them by society, men wind up with social disorders working crazy hours, sacrificing everything for work to fit an economic image put on them by society” (here) or (talking about yurt life) “We’re doing it because we’re having a much better time this way than we were when we saw each other 40 hours/week or less because of my job (and what if we’d been working a job each?). And it’s obvious from the sheer number – 40 hours/week that it was crazy for me to work if I wanted to be a father. To work 40-60 hours/week and spend 40 hours a week home (he would sleep through much of that) is crazy. So now the balance is better. While I’m working almost every day to some extent, I’m home and available to my son and Sage (and Sage for us) almost every waking hour of the day. Conservatively speaking I estimate that to over 100 hours/week. See why I prefer not to be a “Good provider”?” (here). I tend to berate myself that way. At least I’m not as internally melodramatic as when I was working long hours in Albuquerque and took this song all too personally. Fortunately in my business there are peaks and valleys. Right now it is absolutely nuts and could well be that way until the end of the summer. But after that it could be another few months of relative normalcy. So knowing that, I am able to have a bit of perspective and know that I can get through this as I always have and in the end will have a break.

But what was I saying? Oh right, inspiration, and where it went. I think part of that question was answered for me at PAB this past weekend (See, sometimes I do get a weekend off).

PAB was a great experience for me and I got lots out of it (possibly more on that later) but some of the more interesting parts happened totally internally as I found myself in one of the most positive social scenes I’ve ever been in. I got to think a bit about what being “shy” means to me and to ask myself how the hell it works (and I still don’t know, frankly). See, I got to spend more time with new (or at least new in the in-person sense) friends than I have ever had outside of a work environment. Nearly all of that time was spent with Sage along which made it much less awkward to say the least. My experience was that while I was surrounded by nice interesting people, my mind was blank for the first hour or so of knowing them. Being shy in that case was not a case of me thinking of things to say but feeling worried I’d sound like an idiot. It happened “upstream” of that to the point that I felt as if I didn’t have a thing to say. However, if I was able to spend an hour or so, ideas started to come to me and I found myself able to participate. It was a strange experience – there was no nervousness, just a lack of ideas that eventually remedied itself. My only guess is that I might be absorbing the situation, taking in the personalities of those around me and then after I gather enough information adapting to the conversation. Who the hell knows.

A similar situation happened a couple months ago when I went to (don’t laugh) Dale Carnegie sales training in the states. Much of the first day was spent being fairly quiet and the instructor definitely noticed this. However, by the end of the first day something clicked and when I was put on the spot to do a mock presentation to a client, (a coworker not only pretending to be a potential client but pretending to be a somewhat hostile client), inspiration flowed. I’d be asked a tough question and the answer would come, seemingly from the sky.

Hmmm…Here’s a strange thought. What if it was the role-playing idea of it all that made me feel comfortable. I’ve seen Paul experience that before. A while back he was in a zombie walk and though he’s extremely 99% of the time, in zombie costume he was outgoing to the point of making faces at diners in fancy Queen street restaurants as we passed. Anyway, back on topic (man am I rambling today! My apologies again). So perhaps that initial time of observation is sort of a chance for me to decide which role I’m supposed to play (WorkTodd, HomeTodd, YurtYearsTodd, PoliticalTodd or some other incarnation – all of which are genuine but, like various outfits, not all of which are appropriate for the situation).

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Okay – I have a few true confessions here. Not only have I set up a Facebook page, I’ve started messing around a little with twitter. And further true confessions – on both Saturday and Sunday of this past week I had a small cup of caffeinated coffee after having given it up in March, saying (when Sage asked me about it) “What happens in Kingston stays in Kingston.” So far that’s been the case.

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I do want to talk at some point about Podcasters Across Borders but it is almost time for me to go to bed. But before I end this, I want to pass on video from what has to be my favourite presentation (though there were many really great ones). For some reason I think Jimbob may find it interesting (but I could be completely off base). Anyway, the subject is Podcaster Burnout though it could pretty much apply to everything from blogs to relationships and the presenter (I find it incredible that this is his first ever presentation) is fabulous. I highly recommend it to anyone struggling with lack of inspiration. Watch it here.

links for 2007-06-18

• Who Killed the Electric Car
  If I get a few free minutes I’ll have to watch this. I missed it when it was in the theatre here in Toronto
  (tags: video documentary environment)